First State Univeristy Acceptance

     This came before Christmas, but we failed to make a post about the news. Sarah received her first acceptance letter from a Tennessee State University! It was from UT, Knoxville or simply known around here as UT. The UT system has many other universities through the state just like the CSU system in California. Since I'm guessing UT Knoxville is the power house among the athletic arena in the SEC, they get the top dog ranking among the UT system.

     I'm sure many of our male friends that we have made here will be happy to think that Sarah could be a part of the UT Volunteer alum if she decided to attend there in the fall. If she were to register and go to one of the home football games, she would be a part of the 100,000 fans that attend. SEC football is BIG TIME here!

     Beside the huge football games, Sarah really likes that UT has an education program that offers the 4+1 in which she would graduate in 5 years with her Bachelor's Degree in English, Teacher Credential, and a Master's Degree in Education along with 1 year experience as she enters the work force. It sounds like a great program for the direction she feels she is being led to pursue. Of the 5 universities she has applied to, 3 of them offer this same 4+1 program.

One thing that Sarah received in this acceptance letter was a Certificate of Admission. I thought it was a pretty unique way to note your acceptance.

This is what is known as the Power T. Not all of these "T's" together, this is just a photo with lots and lots of power T's. Not really sure the origin or meaning, but from our UT fanatics, this is  important.

For those of you keeping track, Sarah has 3 acceptance letters and we are awaiting to hear back from 2 more. I'm guessing we won't hear anything until after the winter break.

Extended Christmas Thanks to Aunt Cathy

     When we thought all was done with the Christmas celebrations, more packages arrived Monday thanks to my Aunt Cathy! Apparently, the presents wanted to celebrate Christmas in Memphis so they arrived here a few days late :)

     Since Aunt Cathy lives back in California, I thought she would appreciate a few pictures of us opening our gifts. Thank you so much Aunt Cathy! You are such a loving, caring individual who gives much of herself for others
.

Now JT is starting to understand that we unwrap presents. Almost too little too late :)

 We discovered the 1st present was for John and I.

 It was a Pannini Maker! We don't have one and are really looking forward to using it. As you can see JT would like for me to start using it immediately! I'm thinking grilled cheese will never be the same....

 Off for round 2!

 There were individual presents for each child inside one big box...

 John working hard to get through the wrap to get JT started....

 It was a Chuck the Truck tow truck! It makes noise when you bump the bumper and JT love, love, loved it!!!

 Sarah's turn!

 Among the gifts- a nice set of gloves. This makes me happy because Sarah usually wears very thick mittens when driving to school and now not only will she be warm, but she will have a better grip on the steering wheel.

 After JT played with his new truck for a few minutes, he wanted back in on the unwrapping...

 Among Courtney's gifts, a beautiful angel necklace with her birthstone. She is wearing it already!

 JT also assisted Lindsay unwrap.

 Lindsay was the 1st to discover Aunt Cathy had drawn cute things on each box.

 Lindsay is shocked with delight with her awesome toe Santa socks! She wore them last night.

Once again, thank you Aunt Cathy and I hope you enjoyed watching us "open" the presents for you via the blog.

Fish Kisses

     When JT first was able to kiss, he began with the traditional first kiss- slobbery and open mouth. Messy, yet sweet because he was expressing his love for us. In the past few weeks, JT has begun to convert from his open mouthed kisses to puckering. I was so excited  because he is gaining more control of his actions and it makes for a drier goodnight kisses.

     What we were not expecting was how JT was going to pucker. He puckers with Fish Lips! Not sure how he figured it out, but when we ask for kisses, he almost always greets us with his fish lips. It is hilarious to see and I was tickled to finally get it captured on video to share. I hope you are as amused as we are with JT's new pucker.

Christmas Celebrations

     Our Christmas celebration started on Christmas Eve at our church's candlelight service. It was a beautiful service that ends with the entire congregation lighting individual candles and singing Christmas carols. It was a beautiful sight. We took a few pictures out in the gathering area of the family.

Sarah's boyfriend, Doug, joined us and came home with us for some dinner. They then exchanged presents and watched a movie that he gave her for Christmas.

We are still working hard to get JT to smile for the camera when taking snapshots :)

John took this picture when all the candles were lit during the service.

Then it was time for Santa to visit. Each child has their own wrap which they discover when they look inside their stocking. Each wrap is chosen to suit each child's taste/interests at that time, it makes it quite fun choosing the wrap.

The girls waited patiently for JT to wake up- for some odd reason he chose Christmas morning of all mornings to sleep in! We decided to start off the festivities with the girls since JT is still too young to understand what is going on. JT woke up at nearly 8am!

Once JT woke up, he started off slow with his morning milk and cuddle time. The girls were so excited for JT to open up his gifts. JT needed some encouragement and help to open them up. He would have rather carried the wrapped presents around at the beginning.

Some of the gifts...

After a brief break to eat, the girls opened their gifts from my Mom, aka Nanny.

This blurry shot is the beautiful hand painted ornament my Mom sent John and I. It is painted from the inside of the ornament. This has the 3 wise men and the lights on the tree illuminate it like stained glass.

Nanny sent JT his first Barney that also sings the I Love You song. Barney is by far JT's favorite show/character right now.

For our Christmas feast, we had a yummy ham from Cracker Barrel and all of trimmings. It was delicious!!!

Shot of my plate- note the addition of the Diet Coke, a perfect beverage for a perfect meal :)

White Christmas

     White Christmas is a beautiful song, an even better movie, today we weren't simply dreaming of a White Christmas, it was!!! While we didn't get as much as the news called for, we awoke to a beautiful heavy dusting covering the ground. This was the first White Christmas in the Nashville area in 17 years, so it was extra special.

     I will take time in the next few days to post about our day and the festivities. We have been blessed beyond belief and had a wonderful day with our family. We were even able to video chat with my Mom and Aunt in California, which was great!

     In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our White Christmas from the Apedaile home.

While our White Christmas was glorious, this is the TRUE reason of our celebration today...